Welcome to Professional and Technical Services (PTS) – experts in chemical disinfection for infection prevention. Our goal is to educate and provide you the latest resources related to cleaning and disinfection of environmental surfaces, medical devices and hands. As specialists in disinfectant chemistries, microbiology, environmental cleaning and disinfection, facility assessments and policy and procedure creation we are dedicated to helping any person or facility who uses chemical disinfectants.

Our commitment to providing chemical disinfectant education is more than business, it is a passion.

Friday, June 17, 2016

Has the sky fallen with mcr-1?

This week the blog was supposed to be a continuance of our Disinfection Dysfunction
campaign, but then a CDC
Health Advisory came out and it seems a bit more critical.Many of you probably know exactly what I’m
talking about – the first mcr-1 gene in E. coli has been found in a human in the US.The panic over this finding is that the mcr-1 gene carried by the E. coli bacteria makes it resistant to
the antibiotic colistin,
the drug used against particularly dangerous types of superbugs that can
already withstand many other antibiotics. Even more concerning is the fact that
the patient does not have any recent history of travel outside of the US –
meaning they acquired it somewhere within the US!

If we look at the history of mcr-1, the first report came from China in late 2015, however
investigations of historical isolates show that rare occurrences have been
identified outside of the US since the 1980’s.
Isolates have been found in humans, food, environmental samples and food
animals in at least 20 countries worldwide showing that it’s a One Health problem when
it comes to the war against antimicrobial resistance - people, animals and the
planet are all connected.

In the US, prior to finding mcr-1 in a human, two samples had been found in pigs. Infection
Prevention experts' biggest fear is that the gene will spread to bacteria that
are now susceptible only to colistin. In all three cases in the US, the strain
of E.coli has been different, but the
gene was carried on a plasmid, a mobile piece of DNA that easily can transfer
the gene to other bacteria. That would result in a kind of super-superbug,
invincible to every life-saving antibiotic available.

If we can find the silver lining in the emergence of mcr-1, it’s the fact that from a
cleaning and disinfection perspective, we know that antimicrobial
resistance does NOT equal chemical resistance. Nor do we need to panic over whether or not
the disinfectant we are using carries a claim against mcr-1. Over the years we
have included several blogs on this topic including “Doors,
Keys and Sledgehammers” and “I’ll
take Kill Claims for $200”. I hope
you’ll consider reading this to understand that while cleaning and disinfection
is vitally important and that it needs to be completed correctly, consistently
and without ‘cutting corners’, we do not need to panic over the tools we
already have in our facilities. If your
disinfectant has a claim against E. coli,
you’ll be fine – heck if your disinfectant kills bacteria, you’ll be fine!